In current postal and other carrier distribution systems there may be times when it is desirable to collectively retrieve groups of items from the distribution system prior to their final delivery. The decision to retrieve the groups of items is based on information about one of the items that brings into question whether the remaining items of the group should be delivered. For example, if a letter contaminated with a biological agent is identified, it may indicate that other such letters are being distributed. Accordingly, if a group of letters can be identified that are potentially contaminated, it would be desirable to redirect these letters outside of the normal distribution channel for subsequent evaluation. Currently, however, there is no way to effectively retrieve these individual letters once they have been introduced into the postal distribution system.
While the above paragraph addressed the contamination problem, there are other situations where it would be advantageous to be able to retrieve items from the distribution system. For example, suppose a drug manufacturer who distributed drugs through the postal system determined that a serious problem existed in connection with a particular drug that had recently been distributed. The drug manufacturer would want to retrieve the recently shipped orders as soon as possible to preclude them from reaching the patent.
In view of the above, what is needed is a method for effectively Identifying and retrieving groups of items from a carrier distribution system.
A method for rerouting mailpieces in a carrier distribution system includes the steps of receiving a plurality of mailpieces within the carrier distribution system; dynamically determining criteria defining a suspect group of mailpieces; automatically detecting the presence of the plurality of mailpieces within the carrier distribution system; identifying suspect mailpieces from the plurality of mailpieces by automatically detecting within the carrier distribution system which of the plurality of mailpieces meet the criteria defining the suspect group of mailpieces; and outsorting the suspect mailpieces for evaluation. A postal distribution system incorporates the method.